In a statement released on Wednesday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners—Burma (AAPP) urged the international community to back a call by Tómas Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, for a UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the ruling regime's alleged crimes against humanity.
The Thailand-based prisoner rights group also said that it welcomed a recent report by Quintana that highlighted growing repression in Burma in the run-up to next month's election and called for the unconditional release of all political prisoners.
The report, released on Oct. 15, also reiterated Quintana's earlier proposal for a CoI to address a well-documented pattern of human rights abuses in Burma that amounted to what he called possible crimes against humanity.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Bo Kyi, the joint secretary of the AAPP, said that Quintana's reports make a strong cases that “human rights abuses in Burma constitute crimes against humanity.”
“We released this statement because we want the international community to support the formation of a CoI” to address these abuses, he said.
In his latest report, Quintana highlighted the plight of political prisoners, noting that “Some have already spent most of the past two decades imprisoned for their involvement in calling for democratic transition in Myanmar [Burma], such as the leaders of the 88 Generation students’ group, currently serving 65-year prison sentences.”
Student activists, monks, opposition politicians and ethnic minority leaders who are currently imprisoned have a legitimate role to play in the upcoming polls, the the UN Special Rapporteur said, adding that an immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience is necessary for the elections to be credible.
Bo Kyi said the AAPP won’t accept the result of the election unless the ruling regime releases all political prisoners. He also said that the junta should not bring into force the country's new Constitution, which was approved in 2008 in a referendum widely denounced as a sham.
So far, 13 nations have expressed their support for the establishment of a CoI, including the US, the UK and Australia. The AAPP said it hopes that Quintana's new report will inspire other UN member states to do the same.
The AAPP also recently presented a report about the situation of political prisoners in Burma to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Human Right Conference.
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